This year’s CPAC roster includes Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s white supremacist aide who, as head of Breitbart News, bragged that “We're the platform for the alt-right.” It included Milo Yiannopoulos until he was booted for saying gross things about something other than women and non-white people—everything Yiannopoulos said up to the moment he advocated for pedophilia was fine by CPAC. So this smells like an entire stockyard full of bulls:

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference began Thursday morning outside Washington, DC, with a strange denunciation of the movement by the executive director of the organization behind the event. In a speech titled "The Alt Right Ain't Right at All," American Conservative Union executive director Dan Schneider said that the alt-right isn't really a conservative movement at all. Instead, he said, "a hate-filled, left-wing fascist group hijacked the very term 'alt-right.'" Schneider called the alt-right anti-Semitic, racist, and sexist.

That CPAC would take the trouble of trying to distance itself from the alt-right shows that the brand has become toxic—people noticed that “alt-right” translates to “white supremacist.” But saying “that’s not us” while featuring Bannon and seven current Breitbart staffers on your program is really not even trying. 

Just when you thought Trump’s immigration enforcement and deportation plans couldn’t get any worse or be any less humane—they actually do. Yesterday in Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed an undocumented woman with a brain tumor from the hospital to take her back to the detention center where she was once being held. No, that was not a typo. They actually went into a hospital, tied this poor woman up by the hands and ankles, removed her from medical care and took her back to a detention center.

The woman, a Salvadoran national identified only as Sara, was released from Huguley Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, and taken to Prairieland Detention Center against her will, according to her lawyers.

Just what kind of lunatic, demonic souls do they have working for ICE, anyway? Has everyone in the federal government taken leave of their senses since January 20? Apparently, they have also now cut her off from contact with her family. 

[Melissa Zuniga, a member of Sara's legal team] said Sara, 26, was cut off from communication with her family and lawyers, even after the hospital and ICE had cleared Sara's mother for unrestricted phone access.

It looks like Sara is in pretty bad shape and with pressure on the hospital that they don’t want, it looks like her legal team may have to scramble to get her other care. 

Zuniga said Sara complained of profuse nosebleeds and of long-term memory loss, while not receiving treatment at the hospital.

"Huguley no longer wants to be in charge of her case because they’re getting hounded by calls and a potential lawsuit," said Zuniga.

Here we go with Jeff Sessions. Again. As if everything we know about him isn’t horrific enough for us to want to set the entire Department of Justice on fire and start again from scratch. 

But now that he officially has the job of attorney general, victims advocates are rightly concerned about some of his hardline views (and, of course, his rabid racism and misogyny); specifically because America’s newest Top Cop is now in charge of enforcing the Violence Against Women Act (also known as VAWA).

Ol’ Jeff doesn’t exactly have a good record of supporting women’s rights when they are expanded beyond basic protections. As a senator in 2000 and again in 2005, he voted for VAWA which passed unanimously both times. But in 2012, it was a different story. Here’s why:

But when the law came up for review in 2012, it contained several significant additions: an increase in the number of visas available to battered immigrant women fleeing their abusers, new nondiscrimination protections for LGBT survivors of violence, and a provision granting tribal courts the authority to prosecute non-Native Americans who abused Native women on tribal land. 

Senate Republicans argued that the new provisions were too broad and would invite abuse of VAWA funding. Sessions accused Democrats of including them to turn the reauthorization into a political battle. "There are matters put on that bill that almost seem to invite opposition," he told the New York Times in 2012.

What exactly was it about this that invited opposition for Jeff and the Senate Republicans? Are they so obsessed with their retrograde views on immigration, LGBT equality and civil rights that they really signed off on women being abused? Just when you thought it was impossible for them to get any worse—they go and prove once again that they are truly despicable human beings.

We also know that Jeff isn’t likely to do anything to help minorities since, in the past, he has voted against legislation to protect the very same groups covered in VAWA. 

Fake terrorism expert Sebastian Gorka is … a fake terrorism expert, who got his position in the Trump regime in the usual way: by spreading lies and unreasoning fear, and praising the fabulous Trump.

When an actual terrorism expert pointed out the danger of listening to Gorka’s fringe positions and uninformed opinions, Gorka proved his Team Trump special snowflake credentials by making a threatening phone call.

Sebastian Gorka, whose views on Islam have been widely labeled extremist, called noted terrorism expert Michael E. Smith II in South Carolina and expressed dismay that Smith had been criticizing him on Twitter, according to a recording of the call provided to Newsweek.

Dismay. That’s one way of putting it. You can listen to the call at Newsweek.

In it, Gorka starts the conversation by threatening Smith with a lawsuit over his Twitter comments, and not just to sue, but have Smith’s comments “reviewed by White House legal counsel.” Then Gorka complains repeatedly that Smith attacks his credentials even though they’ve never met. When Smith points out that anyone’s expertise, even his own, is subject to criticism, Gorka replies that it hasn’t happened to him. Which is not exactly true.

In fact, questions about Gorka’s views and credentials to speak authoritatively on Islam and terrorism were severely criticized in lengthy feature articles in The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in recent days. He also received a wave of unfavorable publicity in January 2016 when he was arrested for trying to pass through a TSA checkpoint at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. carrying a loaded handgun. He was charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to six months probation.

In fact, Smith is probably the most kind and tactful of Gorka’s many critics. Others simply think “he’s nuts.”

A bill attempting to criminalize protest has passed the Arizona Senate—supported entirely by Republicans, of course—and is headed to the state House. The bill claims to be aimed at “rioting,” but rioting is already illegal. This bill says that anyone who plans or attends a protest at which something the government chooses to define as rioting happens can be prosecuted:

SB1142 expands the state’s racketeering laws, now aimed at organized crime, to also include rioting. And it redefines what constitutes rioting to include actions that result in damage to the property of others.

But the real heart of the legislation is what Democrats say is the guilt by association — and giving the government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest and everyone who participated. And what’s worse, said Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, is that the person who may have broken a window, triggering the claim there was a riot, might actually not be a member of the group but someone from the other side. [...]

There’s something else: By including rioting in racketeering laws, it actually permits police to arrest those who are planning events.

Picture it: You plan a peaceful protest, but then someone shows up and breaks a window or sets a trashcan on fire. And then you and all the other peaceful protesters are threatened with prosecution and asset seizure.

Democrats opposing the bill raised some damn good points—as Farley suggested, you think James O’Keefe or the like won’t be sending fake protesters to break windows to get their political opponents arrested? Sen. Andrea Dalessandro raised another crucial point: “I’m fearful that ‘riot’ is in the eyes of the beholder and that this bill will apply more strictly to minorities and people trying to have their voice heard.” That’s pretty much a guarantee. 

Republicans know they’re not just targeting violence, even if they won’t directly admit it. As Sen. Sylvia Allen, who represents Snowflake (really), said: “I have been heartsick with what’s been going on in our country, what young people are being encouraged to do.” What’s been going on is resistance to authoritarianism and bigotry. That should make you proud, not heartsick. Instead, you want to criminalize the very many for the actions of the very few.

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort quit Trump’s campaign in August under a cloud of suspicion, but it now appears that more than potential investigations may have been behind his departure. Manafort was also being strong-armed by someone with inside knowledge of under-the-table payments and a secret meeting between Donald Trump and a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to “bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.

Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist, has claimed to have no connection to the texts, but whatever their source, the author seemed to have advance knowledge of the investigation launched by Ukrainian officials into more than $12 million in off the books payments supposedly funneled to Manafort. These payments may have continued while Manafort was employed by Trump.

As for the meeting between Trump and Tulub …

The White House did not respond to a question about whether Trump had met with Tulub, a hunting buddy of Yanukovych’s who had served as part of government when Yanukovych was prime minister. 

Serhiy Tulub is the former coal industry minister and head of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration, and a close associate of Yanukovych. It’s unclear what reason he would have had for meeting with Donald Trump.

As you can see in the photo above, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert loves to be in the middle of a tea party rally surrounded by a sea of angry tea party signs, Gadsden flags, and concealed-carrying tea partiers ranting and raving against expanded health care. 

But now that the Affordable Care Act has helped so many residents of East Texas and they want to talk to Rep. Gohmert, he suddenly can’t be found anywhere but exclusive meetings with donors. From CBS 19:

"I'm frustrated, period," says local small business owner and cattle rancher Hank Gilbert.  

He says Rep. Gohmert isn't doing his job and his lack of town hall meetings is making life difficult.  

"When that Representative won't take the time to speak to us, whether it's individually or with a group, then that's not representation."

They held a rally outside a restaurant where Gohmert was hiding under the guise of a “private meeting.” Rally organizers say people of all political stripes were in attendance:

"We're not outsiders, we're Republicans and Democrats. We're Independents."

Hancock says its become nearly impossible to make her voice heard. Instead of a physical gathering, a third party company is used to randomly select residents to participate in an over the phone town hall.  

So-called telephone town halls have become a hot alternative for chickenshit representatives who don’t want to face their angry constituents. There are reports nationwide that the questions are highly screened, many residents who signed up never get the call, and many are dropped mid-call. And let’s face it: this is an attempt by elected representatives to simply phone it in. 

Why wouldn’t tough-talking Texan Louie Gohmert meet with his constituents? He outlined his refusal in this cowardly letter:

Donald Trump will release Muslim ban 2.0 … sometime soon. It’s totally coming, you guys. Absolutely. One of these days.

A White House official told reporters on Wednesday that the new order would come out ‘sometime next week’ – twice already this month, President Trump has made that same assurance to reporters, but nothing has yet been issued.

And it’s going to be great, the best Muslim ban ever, except for the last one.

“Nothing was wrong with the first executive order,” said White House Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller on Fox News, as he blamed a “flawed judicial ruling” that has held up implementation of the order.

“It’s still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country,” Miller said in an interview, without really giving any details on how it would change.

For people claiming that this ban is the only thing standing between the United States and a horde of terrorists and insisting that nothing much needs to change for the ban to pass muster with the courts, they sure aren’t in any hurry this time around. Maybe that’s because they know that in reality:

According to the New America Foundation, all 12 jihadist terrorists who have killed people in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, were American citizens or permanent residents, and none had ties to the seven countries named in Mr. Trump’s executive order. Out of the nearly 400 non-deadly jihadist terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11, perpetrators were linked to Iran or Somalia in three cases.

They really might as well just put out whatever piece of trash they’ve already got prepared. It’s not going to get any easier to defend a ban on these specific countries, and all of the Trump camp’s statements that a Muslim ban was the goal are going to stay on the record for the courts to consider.

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Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions made their attack on the rights of transgender students official Wednesday evening, rescinding an Obama directive allowing them to use bathrooms consistent with their gender. The New York Times writes:

In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and the Education Department rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice.

That directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”

Remember what a big deal Trump made of saying "L-G-B-T-Q" on several occasions during the campaign—yeah, lot of good that does when you hire homo-hater Jeff Sessions to run your Justice Department. Social conservatives like Tony Perkins are overjoyed with the announcement—it's really important to them to single out queer folks for discrimination, even and especially if they’re students and particularly vulnerable.

Education secretary Betsy DeVos reportedly fought Sessions on the matter, but when Sessions went running to Trump to tattle on DeVos, Trump sided with him. Sorry Betsy, at the end of the day, you're still just a woman in a White House rife with misogyny.

Democratic lawmakers want to find out the truth about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia, and how his policies are being distorted by business interests. 

Democrats have blasted Trump for failing to make a clean break from his real estate empire, accusing him of being vulnerable to conflicts of interest. They also are suspicious of his campaign’s relationship with Russia. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that top Russian officials orchestrated interference into the 2016 presidential election on Trump’s behalf.

Republicans want to keep any investigation from getting even a moment’s notice in public—both because protecting Trump is now their number one priority and so they can free up more time for investigating Sid the Science Kid. On the other hand, individual House members are a tad reluctant to put their name next to a “Trump gets out of all laws free” resolution. So they’re doing it in committee.

Seeking to avoid a full House vote on the so-called “resolution of inquiry” — a roll call that would be particularly embarrassing and divisive for the right — Republicans will send proposal by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to the House Judiciary Committee for a panel vote on Tuesday, two Democratic sources said. The GOP-controlled committee is expected to kill the resolution.

To make sure that even the committee vote gets lost in the shuffle, Republicans are scheduling it to sneak in just before Trump’s first address to Congress. 

Want to watch Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas get absolutely lacerated at a town hall on Wednesday night by a constituent who went thermonuclear on him for wanting to take away her dying husband’s health insurance? Trust me on this: You really, really do.

And this is why Cotton is going to burn in one of the very hottest circles of hell:

So he’s there to say that Obamacare is indeed effective, but that it should be ripped away anyway from people like the woman who bravely confronted him? If Tom Cotton had any kind of soul, he wouldn’t be getting any sleep. Somehow, though, it’s safe to assume that he’s resting well.